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Mr. Paddy loves to bake. He is always asking me or Grandma to bake with him and
I am generally more than happy to oblige. This weekend was a busy one, we had
family visiting Saturday which meant I spent the morning running around trying
to get a day’s worth of chores and errands done in just a couple of hours, I
then made a (delicious) lasagna and entertained our guests once they arrived.
But we had a little bit of free time in the afternoon, so I decided to go ahead
and make some cupcakes with my little pastry chef. We made a delicious vanilla
cupcake and the plan was to make a strawberry buttercream. Paddy had asked
for chocolate frosting on top with pink frosting inside. Thinking this was more
than I wanted to take on we compromised on just pink on top.

And that is where the fun ended.

We finished the cupcakes in the late afternoon. We decided that it would be
better to make blackberry buttercream instead of strawberry and agreed to make
it the next day. And oh what a day that turned out to be. Paddy threw his first
tantrum at 7:30 am, then another at 8:15, and another at 8:30. We made it
through breakfast and had a conversation about appropriate behavior and what we
can do to calm ourselves down. After that, the morning seemed to be heading in a
better direction, so we decided to push forward with the frosting.

My darling son lasted about two minutes in the kitchen before melting down into
tantrum number four. Silly me for telling him to stop touching the cupcakes.
This turned out to be the greatest tantrum of the day, fully loaded with
screaming, yelling, banging doors, and kicking! Yay toddlers. By this point
everyone was completely exhausted and making frosting was definitely off the
table.

After a good night’s sleep, we tried again after dinner on Monday. Paddy was in
a less volatile mood and had just gotten a package in the mail from Grandma
(which should explain the bathing suit). I told him on the way home if his
behavior was good and he used his listening ears all evening we would make
frosting. And we did this time!

Paddy’s interest and attention are both growing. He pays much closer attention
and asks questions about the process. I love explaining each step to him and
letting him do more and more of the work each time we bake. It is a wonderful
practice for me to let go of my controlling and perfectionist tendencies. Plus,
with a nearly-six month old in the house, it is wonderful when I get a little
time alone with my baby boy.

About the cupcakes though:
Vanilla Cupcakes with olive oil and Blackberry Buttercream
The recipe called for “light oil” and suggested as an option very light olive
oil. I decided it might be fun to use regular extra virgin olive oil. It tasted
great! The batter had a strong olive oil flavor, but once baked it became much
more subtle.

For the buttercream, I used a simple recipe…butter and powdered sugar and
added some fresh blackberries that had been pushed through a sieve to remove
seeds. The color was fabulous, but the blackberry flavor was not as strong as I
hoped. The Mister suggested I start with a blackberry reduction next time. While
more labor intensive, I think he might be onto something.

By Sunday afternoon I thought the unfrosted cupcakes were going to end up in the
garbage, but I slept on it and decided to take my chances with the monster. It
was a good call, as these turned out almost as delicious as I expected them to
be.